Joseph Schneider Haus tour

Oh man!

i have been talking about touring the Joseph Schneider Haus (first house in kitchener) on queen street since we moved into our house, which was a while ago... like over a year.

Every time that i have couple days free I talk about going for a tour - but today i ACTUALLY DID!

And it was awesome.

Haven't been since i was in Grade 3, learning about the Pioneers.

Joe and his fam actually came up from Pennsylvania, because around 1805 the land was getting to pricey down there. (about $100/acre compared to kitchener's $1/acre).
The house was build around that time, but the museum is showing the family's living conditions a generation later... about 1856. They run the house the same way, and are constantly working on chores or crafts or other things that the Schneider's kept busy with. Everyone at the museum is dressed to the time period and is EXTREMELY knowledgeable about the family, the region and time period.

Cost is $2.25 per person (less for kids). What a deal!

Here's some pictures.

(Some of them are a little dark because there is no electricity in the house, deal with it, the schneiders did.)

Here it is from the Street.

The Kitchen, the most used room in the house because it was the only warm one in the winter.

Here's the pantry/work area, there's tons of stuff in here.

Here's the stove and all the boys stuff hanging up! cute!

Here's the guest bedroom upstairs, not sure why i missed photos of the master bedroom... oops.

Here's the girls work room upstairs... it also has a little mini furnace, so they could sew in the winter without their fingers falling off.

Here's some extra wool up in the attic. Very cool area of the house, you can see the x's on the roof boards to indicate which pieces went together. there's also a "laying out" board up there... which is ... used for laying out dead people in the living room... kind of Irish wake style. Gross.

There's also some wicked stains on the floor because they used to use the attic as a meat cellar in the winter... and their would be pigs hanging up all over the place. GROSSSSSS.

On a happier note, here's the Spring House (used for churning butter and keeping dairy things cool in the Spring).

Here's the bake/smoke/dry house... that thing in the middle is for cooking 10 pies at the same time. They also have this pretty sweet system for drying out fruits and veggies for the winter. dried butternut squash... mmmmm.

This is the garden shed... potatoes anyone?

The Four Square Kitchen Garden... this was separate from the farm... the women tended it and it was more for use in cooking... herbs for tea, medicinal things... horseradish, cabbage, beans... etc. They tend the garden now, and use a lot of it for cooking in the house.

here's a look from the back of the lot.

So Awesome. Seriously - go and learn about this shit. I could go on and on with all the cool details of this place, and probably go on a huge rant about how detached we are from everything in our homes, grocery stores and today's value system, but i will leave it here.

Hopefully when you visit, Kyle will be there, our amazing tour guide/history grad.

Many thanks man,

H.